Highlights of the September Sky

- - - 1 - - -

New Moon 5:03 am EDT

- - - 3rd - - - DUSK: Venus is about 4° to the Moon’s lower right.

- - - 4th - - - DUSK: A waxing crescent Moon is low in the west with Spica about 5º to its lower left.

- - - 8th - - - PM: The Moon is 3º above Saturn. Mars is 9º left of Saturn, with Antares is 6º to the lower left.

- - - 9th - - - First Quarter Moon 7:49 am EDT

- - - 16th - - - Full Moon 3:05 pm EDT

- - - 22nd - - - Equinox: Autumn begins in the Northern Hemisphere at 10:21 am EDT.

- - - 23rd - - - Last Quarter Moon 5:56 am EDT

PM: Algol is at minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for roughly two hours centered at 11:19 pm.

- - - 27th - - - AM: A waning crescent Moon is about 6° to the upper right of Regulus.

- - - 29 - - - DAWN: Use binoculars to search very low in the east 30 or 40 minutes before sunrise to find a thin crescent Moon less than 2° below Mercury.

- - - 30th - - - New Moon 8:11 pm EDT

General Meeting: Friday, September 9 @ 7:00 pm Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center - See Page 6 for Details

Observing Session: Saturday, September 10 @ 8:00 pm

The Moon, Uranus & Neptune - Kalamazoo Nature Center

Board Meeting: Sunday, September 11 @ 5:00 pm Sunnyside Church - 2800 Gull Road - All Members Welcome

Observing Session: Saturday, September 24 @ 8:00 pm

Overwhelming Open Clusters - Kalamazoo Nature Center

KAS

Inside the Newsletter. . . Perseid Potluck Picnic Report............. p. 2

NASA Space Place.................................. p. 2

Observations........................................... p. 3

Publicity Officer Duties......................... p. 3

September Night Sky............................. p. 4

KAS Board & Announcements............ p. 5

General Meeting Preview..................... p. 6

September 2016 Prime Focus Page 2

The Kalamazoo Astronomical Society held its twenty-second annual Perseid Potluck Picnic at the Kalamazoo Nature Center on Saturday, August 6th with a start time of 6:00 pm. Exactly 71 members and guests RSVP’d for this year’s summer social celebration, which would have rivalled last year’s record setting attendance. However, the actual attendance was between 50 - 55 members and guests. Quite satisfactory, but it meant we had more leftover burgers and hot dogs than intended. The weather for this year’s picnic was the best in years. It took place during a brief respite from the humidity that has been plaguing us this summer. The temperature at the start of the picnic was about 80° F with mostly clear skies. This allowed us to observe the Sun for the first time in 3 years. Several members setup solar telescopes. Richard Bell shared dual views of the Sun. His TMB-92SS refractor was equipped with a white light filter, and his Lunt 60mm refractor shared views of the Sun in hydrogen alpha. Dave Woolf had a double stacked Lunt 60mm H-alpha telescope, which provided razor sharp views of the chromosphere. Roger Williams shared his venerable Coronado 70mm H-alpha telescope setup as well. Jim Kurtz brought his new Lunt 100mm H-alpha telescope. Small groups of sunspots peppered the solar surface and a nice collection of prominences slowly danced along the solar limb.

Jack & Ruth Price provided folding tables draped in red checkered table cloths (as they have for many years) for all the wonderful side dishes and desserts. Don Stilwell resumed his duties as our master chef this year and provided his grill from home. Veggie burgers were burned (just right, of course), red meat was seared, and Ball Park hot dogs were toasted with perfection! Compliments to the chef! Skies were clear for the Public Observing Session that followed the picnic. Attendance was quite high and thankfully many members stayed well after midnight to provide stunning views of planets, clusters, nebulae, and galaxies through their telescopes. Thank you!

REPO

RT Is there a Super-Earth

in the Solar System Out Beyond Neptune?

by Dr. Ethan Siegel

When the advent of large telescopes brought us the discoveries of Uranus and then Neptune, they also brought the great hope of a Solar System even richer in terms of large, massive worlds. While the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt were each found to possess a large number of substantial icy-and-rocky worlds, none of them approached even Earth in size or mass, much less the true giant worlds. Meanwhile, all-sky infrared surveys, sensitive to red dwarfs, brown dwarfs and Jupiter-mass gas giants, were unable to detect anything new that was closer than Proxima Centauri. At the same time, Kepler taught us that super-Earths, planets between Earth and Neptune in size, were the galaxy's most common, despite our Solar System having none. The discovery of Sedna in 2003 turned out to be even more groundbreaking than astronomers realized. Although many Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) were discovered beginning in the 1990s, Sedna had properties all the others didn't. With an extremely eccentric orbit and an aphelion taking it farther from the Sun than any other world known at the time, it represented our first glimpse of the hypothetical Oort cloud: a spherical distribution of bodies ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of A.U. from the Sun. Since the discovery of Sedna, five other long-period, very eccentric TNOs were found prior to 2016 as well. While you'd expect their orbital parameters to be randomly distributed if they occurred by chance, their orbital orientations with respect to the Sun are clustered extremely narrowly: with less than a 1-in-10,000 chance of such an effect appearing randomly. Whenever we see a new phenomenon with a surprisingly non-random appearance, our scientific intuition calls out for a physical explanation. Astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown provided a compelling possibility earlier this year: perhaps a massive perturbing body very distant from the Sun provided the gravitational "kick" to hurl these objects towards the Sun. A single addition to the Solar System would explain the orbits of all of these long-period TNOs, a planet about 10 times the mass of Earth approximately 200 A.U. from the Sun, referred to as Planet Nine. More Sedna-like TNOs with similarly aligned orbits are predicted, and since January of 2016, another was found, with its orbit aligning perfectly with these predictions. Ten meter class telescopes like Keck and Subaru, plus NASA's NEOWISE mission, are currently searching for this hypothetical, massive world. If it exists, it invites the question of its origin: did it form along with our Solar System, or was it captured from another star's vicinity much more recently? Regardless, if Batygin and Brown are right and this object is real, our Solar System may contain a super-Earth after all.

September 2016 Prime Focus Page 3

You are cordially invited (and strongly encouraged) to attend our general meeting on Friday, September 9th at the Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center (KAMSC). We’ll celebrate the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society’s 80th anniversary with a very special guest speaker. Alan Dyer is one of Canada’s best-known astronomy authors and astrophotographers. He currently serves as associate editor of SkyNews magazine, and as a contributing editor to Sky & Telescope. He has also co-authored several best selling guidebooks for amateur astronomers, including The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide (which I love), and most recently the ebook How to Photograph and Process Nightscapes and Time-Lapses. Alan is indeed a gifted astrophotographer and he’ll share many of his breathtaking celestial portraits and time-lapse videos in his presentation The Amazing Sky. This presentation was funded through a generous grant from the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, so it’s imperative attendance for this event is high. Alan is a first rate presenter (thanks to over 40 years in the planetarium trade) and his astrophotography will peak the interest of any astronomy or photography enthusiast. So please, mark your calendars and make every effort to attend the September 9th general meeting. If not because of our excellent guest speaker, but because I’m asking you to. After all, our speaker is flying in from Alberta, Canada. The least you can do is make the relatively short trip to KAMSC. Incidentally, Alan Dyer is also a veteran eclipse chaser. He has visited every continent and witnessed (to date) 15 total solar eclipses. I mention this, of course, because the Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017 is now less than a year away! Many preparations are underway all along the eclipse path and I’ll try to spend much of the next 11 months keeping you informed. The first I’ll mention comes from a recent e-mail I received by our Astronomy Day 2014 keynote speaker and Astronomy magazine Senior Editor, Michael Bakich. Michael is organizing an eclipse viewing event at Rosecrans Memorial Airport in St. Joseph, Missouri. St. Joseph is located in the northwest part of the state, right on the Kansas border. The centerline of the eclipse skirts the southern end of the airport, making this a prime venue for a large group of people to observe the spectacle. Totality has a duration of within 1 second of the maximum and offers great weather prospects. Michael has hopes that this public gathering for the eclipse will turn out to be the single largest science event in history. He’s expecting some 200,000 people! Obviously, as Michael mentioned in his e-mail, he can’t do this alone. He has already secured the help of a number of astronomy clubs and asked if the KAS would like to get involved as well. All we

would need to do is show up, set up filtered telescopes, and then do what we do best…talk to the public about our love of astronomy. If this event and location sounds appealing to you then please let me know. The thought of being around 200,000 people when totality begins is very tempting. It’s like a critical touchdown during the Super Bowl times four! Because the eclipse occurs on a Monday they plan to use the weekend to present a vast array of programs. These include teacher workshops, lectures by experts in astronomy, and public solar observing sessions. You can learn more about this on the event’s official website:

http://www.stjosepheclipse.com/ My plan is still to attend the Astronomical League’s convention (ALCon 2017) in the days leading up to the eclipse. It’s being held in Casper, Wyoming. In fact, the Casper Journal just had an article about their town’s eclipse plans. I’ll have more about this in the month’s ahead. Excitement is building!

Observations by Richard S. Bell

KAS President Richard Bell proposed creating a new officer-level board position at the board meeting on February 14, 2016. This new position would replace one of the current Member-At-Large board positions. The Publicity (or perhaps Public Relations) Officer would be responsible for ensuring that the KAS receives the widest possible media coverage for its various activities and special events. The creation of this new position would require amending our Bylaws, which require a two-thirds vote of members present at a general or annual meeting. Below are the proposed duties to be stated in the amended Bylaws:

To become familiar with the Articles and Bylaws of the KAS.

To be familiar with all local media personnel.

To write and submit regular media releases concerning upcoming club events and achievements.

To organize the distribution of information on the KAS and its activities throughout the community.

To keep the Board informed of all media activities.

To perform such other duties as may be directed by the Board.

The Board requests input on this new position and its duties from the membership. We’ll have a discussion at the September General Meeting and vote to amend the Bylaws at the October meeting. Nominations for the position (if approved) will be held at the November meeting and [hopefully] filled at the Annual Meeting on December 2nd.

Publicity Officer Proposed Duties

September Night Sky.................

NORTH

EA

ST

WE

ST

T he Moon, mere hours from being first quarter, is about 3° above

Saturn on the evening of Sept. 8th. Still brilliant and orange-red Mars is 9° to Saturn’s left, while the Antares twinkles 6° to the lower left of the ringed planet. The Sun will shine directly above Earth’s equator on Sept. 22nd, bringing Autumn to

the Northern Hemisphere (and spring to the South) at exactly 10:21 am EDT. A waning crescent Moon will be about 6° to the upper right of Regulus, the heart of Leo the Lion, during the early morning hours of Sept. 27th. Using binoculars and starting 30 minutes

before sunrise on Sept. 29th, search very low in the east for a thin crescent Moon with Mercury less than 2° above. The Moon will be new for the second time this month on Sept. 30th (first time being Sept. 1st). Unlike a second full Moon this has no special name. Seems kind of unfair! What should we call it?

SOUTH

This star map is property of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society. However you may make as many copies as you wish free-of-charge, so long as it is for non-profit educational purposes and full credit is given to the KAS.

www.kasonline.org

This map represents the sky at the following local standard times:

Late August 10 pm

Early September 9 pm

Late September Dusk

PRESIDENT

Richard S. Bell 373-8942

VICE PRESIDENT

Jack Price 343-3193

TREASURER

Rich Mather 629-5312

SECRETARY/ALCOR

Roger Williams 375-4867

MEMBERS-AT-LARGE

Joe Comiskey 329-4251 Mike Cook 345-4998 Scott Macfarlane 679-2865 Don Stilwell 963-5856

E-MAIL a BOARD MEMBER

September 2016 Page 5

Public Observing Sessions

Kalamazoo Nature Center ─ 7000 N. Westnedge Ave. ─

Saturday, September 10th

Saturday, September 24th

The Kalamazoo Astronomical Society’s Orion ShortTube 80mm refractor, mounted on the light weight and ultra-portable EQ-1 mount, is available for loan. This little scope gives great wide-field views and can be setup in a snap. Visit the Telescopes for Loan webpage and contact KAS Equipment Manager Arya Jayatilaka today if you’d like borrow it.

It’s been well over ten years since the KAS has offered a full line of clothing. We now have several items in stock and ready for purchase. These include:

Short‐sleeve T‐Shirts: $17.00 

Long‐sleeve T‐Shirts: $20.00 

Sweatshirts (unhooded): $17.00 

Sweatshirts (hooded): $22.00 

KAS Embroidered Caps: $15.00 

Full details, including sizes and colors, will be listed on our online store, The SkyShop, soon. Clothing will also be available to purchase at most general mee ngs.

Apparel Today! Get Your

© September 2016, Stargazer Productions

Kalamazoo Astronomical Society c/o KAMSC 600 West Vine, Suite 400 Kalamazoo, MI 49008

STAMP

General Meeting Preview

To coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society astrophotographer, astronomy author, lecturer, and planetarium producer Alan Dyer invites you on a photographic tour of the most amazing sights the sky has to offer.

The sky provides us with an endless show filled with beautiful sights and wondrous objects, many visible with just unaided eyes or binoculars. Alan tours us through our amazing sky using images and time‐lapse movies he has taken, both from home in Canada and from far‐off lands in pursuit of foreign skies and spectacular eclipses.

Friday, September 9 @ 7:00 pm 

Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center 600 West Vine, Suite 400 • Use Dutton St. Entrance

─ Dutton Entrance Locked by 7:10 pm ─